"Thou art all fair, my love."
--Song of Solomon 4:7
The Lord's admiration of His Church is very a wonderful, and
His description of her beauty is very glowing. She is not merely
fair, but "all fair." He views her in Himself, washed in His
sin-atoning blood and clothed in His meritorious righteousness,
and He considers her to be full of comeliness and beauty. No
wonder that such is the case, since it is but His own perfect
excellency that He admires; for the holiness, glory, and
perfection of His Church are His own glorious garments on the
back of His own well-beloved spouse. She is not simply pure, or
well-proportioned; she is positively lovely and fair! She has
actual merit! Her deformities of sin are removed; but more, she
has through her Lord obtained a meritorious righteousness by
which an actual beauty is conferred upon her. Believers have a
positive righteousness given to them when they become "accepted
in the beloved" (Eph. 1:6). Nor is the Church barely lovely,
she is superlatively so. Her Lord styles her "Thou fairest
among women." She has a real worth and excellence which cannot
be rivalled by all the nobility and royalty of the world. If
Jesus could exchange His elect bride for all the queens and
empresses of earth, or even for the angels in heaven, He would
not, for He puts her first and foremost--"fairest among women."
Like the moon she far outshines the stars. Nor is this an
opinion which He is ashamed of, for He invites all men to hear
it. He sets a "behold" before it, a special note of exclamation,
inviting and arresting attention. "Behold, thou art fair, my
love; behold, thou art fair" (Song of Sol. 4:1). His opinion
He publishes abroad even now, and one day from the throne of His
glory He will avow the truth of it before the assembled
universe. "Come, ye blessed of my Father" (Matt. 25:34), will be
His solemn affirmation of the loveliness of His elect.
